Measuring progress

Context: Periodic assessment of health and social development indicators is crucial for any country that is still clawing its way towards achieving ideal standards in the Human Development Index.

Key outcomes of National Family Health Survey-5

• Improvements in some sectors like  maternal and child health, sex ratio and population control
  • Maternal health: Greater proportion of births than ever before is now happening in institutions.
  • Child heath: More children in the 12-23 months age group have received their vaccinations.
  • India has contained the population explosion: India has achieved a total fertility rate of 2.0, dropping further from the figure of NFHS-4.
  • Sex ratio: For the first time, gender ratio has, recorded more women per 1,000 men.
• Stagnation and deterioration in other sectors 
  • In the last five years, Gender ratio at birth still underlines the persistence of a deep-rooted son preference.
  • Insufficient marginal gains in childhood nutrition like wasting and severe wasting.
  • NFHS-5 highlighted the looming threat from lifestyle diseases.

Way forward: Lessons of National Family Health Survey-5

• Renewed corrective efforts like countering deep-rooted son preference through policy and law.
• Balanced nutrition for children through building resilient and fortified systems capable of delivering in the most trying circumstances.
• Policy response: Utilize massive data of NFHS-5  to shape the policies in a manner that will correct deficiencies, and ensure equitable access to services, particularly those with impact on social determinants that improve the quality of life.
• States should launch course correction, inspired by success stories in other regions by comparing data from State-level indices of NFHS-5.
  • States need to treat NFHS-5 data as benchmark as a matrix to work on, to improve the development indicators further.
• Enhanced Centre response: Centre should not treat NFHS-5 as a mere stocktaking exercise, but harness the opportunities the NFHS provides for launching reform or re-assessing certain policies without using it as a political tool in a federal set up.

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